Grab bag

My world has been too interesting and hectic to blog recently:

* There was the Sunday I began by doing some reporting at a homeless feed and ended by doing some reporting at a, ahem, gentleman's club, which led in turn to the afternoon I spent listening to Dolly Parton sing gospel on the iPod while writing about lesbian strippers. I LOVE my job.

* There's my raging fangirl crush on Katee Sackoff, who I've decided should pretty much be in every new TV show. We watched the 'Bionic Woman' premiere this weekend OnDemand -- see, cable is a good thing! -- and I can officially say that Starbuck is the only redeeming factor in the entire 42 minutes. She seemed to be the only one who understood that, when you're talking bionic powers, camp is the only way to go. (And by the way, when the heck does Season 3 of 'Battlestar Gallactica' come out on DVD?? I miss my friends.)

* There was the Portland Pirate Festival. We managed to avoid buying TheBoy a real sword, although he did come home with a $1 balloon sword that he bought with his very own money. (Nothing in the world is as cute as a 4-year-old boy carrying around his Superman wallet stuffed with 5 dollar bills and $8.30 in change.) The sword deflated within 24 hours, which carries all sorts of heavy and depressing life lessons for our young man.

* There were the holy days, which had me feeling like a bad faux-Jew because forgiveness isn't easy. Actually, I fear it gets harder every year.

* There are the Yankees, whose surging I am resisting discussing because I don't want to jinx it.

Almost two months ago, I warned our friend Corey -- a wonderful person when she's not being a rabid Red Sox fan -- that the noble boys in pinstripes would catch the Sons of Sam Horn by her wedding. The festivities are this coming Saturday. It's going to be very, very close.

TheGirl, at almost 10 months

Our little bit of a baby -- actually our huge, 22 pound behemoth of a child -- turns 10 months this week. We've almost made it to the promised land of one year, the time when everything is supposed to get a wee bit easier. At least, they'll get easier for me, because I'm done pumping at 12 month. D.O.N.E. My moo-cow days are almost behind me, impossible as it may have seemed even one or two months ago.

Things you should know about the baby as she approaches yet another monthly milestone: She's still blonde, although perhaps less so than the last time I really stopped to check. She still lacks teeth, for which I am very thankful. She hasn't said any actual words, although she does have a vocabulary that consists of about three phrases: "Da," "Eh," and "Blawahabaha." She's also taken to letting out the occasionally hearty grunt when she's at the nipple. So dainty, this kid.

She's also not crawling, although she is mobile. Instead of getting on her belly and using all fours to move around, she sits straight up and propels herself forward on her rear end. When she's really excited, say whenever TheBoy enters the room, she goes into turbo mode, rocking back and forth and using her arms to scoot even faster. She's just started trying to pull herself up, so the smart money says she's going to go straight from this scooting motion to walking. Crawling is for babies, after all.

The sleep situation is somewhat better. For a while there, she was waking up between 2 and 3 a.m. wanting to eat. About midway through the summer, we decided that 4 a.m. would be the new cutoff: No service before 4. Now, on her own, she's begun trending forward to 5, even 6 a.m. Which is a glorious and wonderful thing, because even an hour more of sleep makes a difference. Judybat and I are still, of course, exhausted and snappish all the time. But at least we're starting to see the light at the end of the sleepy tunnel.

All in all, she's a keeper. Which is good, because I think the warrantee ran out a couple of months ago.

Hello, autumn

School has started, and I felt an odd giddiness as I dropped the kids off this week.

Is it just a coincidence that my depression seems to have lifted just as The Boy and The Girl are beginning full-time preschool and daycare? (I can't remember the last time I used my smiley icon, and here I've put it in two posts in a row!) I'm working more hours, plus I'll be teaching a class two days a week, and while I mourn the loss of time spent with The Boy and The Girl, I also enjoy them more now that we're around each other less.

I can't decide if that make me the worst mother in the world, or just the most honest one.

Goodbye, summer

I took this picture of The Boy a couple of days ago at a park near our house. It's got a great feature that sprays and sprinkles and spews water out of various pipes and holes in the ground.

It's only 12 blocks away, but this was the first time we've been there all summer. Maybe because we've been busy, or it's been unseasonably cold, but whatever the reason, I feel like I've walked through this summer in a fog.

I'm trying to snap out of it, though. I've started getting up at 6:30 to do yoga, which makes me feel remarkably energized, even though I'm giving up an hour of sleep. I've even started drinking caffeine - just a wee bit in my green tea each morning. (I was told in no uncertain terms by a friend in college that if I continued to drink coffee, we could no longer be friends, and I haven't touched the stuff since, as it does tend to make my eyes spin around like pinwheels right before my head pops off.)

The other night I was walking the dogs, and though it might have been a bit melancholy, as it was only a little after eight and the light was already fading, (a reminder that our Northwest summer days, which last till after 9 p.m., are on the wane, and soon that light will last us only until 4 p.m.) I caught a whiff of cold and turning leaves in the air that made me giddy.

I do love the fall.